Automatic gates



G. H. TREIBER AUTOMATIC GATES July 3, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 11, 1960 INVENTOR GoZZeb A. Dabber M Q M M T'TORNEYJ JuIyi' 1962 G. H. TREIBER 3,041,759

AUTOMATIC GATES Filed Oct. 11, 1960 S Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR 6055i Zeb Treber ATTORNEYS United States Patent fifitze 3934!,759 Patented July 3, 1932 3,041,759 AUTUMATIC GATES Gottlieb H. Treiber, Kerrville, Tex., assiguor to Morris G. Morgan, Kerr County, Tex. Filed Oct. 11, 1960, Ser. No. 61,942 6 Claims. (Cl. 39-43) This invention relates to vehicle operated gates and more particularly to such a gate which pivots about a horizontal axis parallel to the roadway to an open position upon the approach of a vehicle thereto from either direction.

While gates and doors, which open automatically in response to the weight of an approaching vehicle or person are well known, the more satisfactory forms of such devices are electrically operated, the common construction being a weight or light interception responsive switch which closes the circuit to a motor mechanism which opens the gate. While the electrical arrangement is satisfactory in regions where electrical power is readily available, there are numerous areas where stock fences and the like have to be maintained in remote regions where electrical power is not available on any economically feasible basis. Weight responsive gate openers of a mechanical type, which were known to the art before the present invention, are characterized by elaborate components which are so expensive to construct and maintain as to militate against their use. In particular, the prior art structures are characterized by treadles having moving parts which are required to be mounted in subsurface pits. These arrangements are required to be waterproof and dust proof and thus are expensive to install and maintain.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome these deficiencies, and to provide a satisfactory weight responsive gate operator which is simple and inexpensive to install and maintain, and which will reliably open upon the approach of a vehicle thereto, and will stay open during the passage ofthe vehicle through the gateway regardless of the speed of the vehicle or its direction of movement.

The automatic gate of the present invention is easy to install and requires a minimum of concrete footings and the like. The gate itself, as well as the actuating mechanism is capable of construction from such readily available materials as channel section materials, tubes and the like.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description of a prepared embodiment thereof in conjunction with the annexed drawings wherein:-

FIGURE 1 is a view in front elevation of a gate constructed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention, the closed position of said gate being shown in full lines and the open position thereof being shown in broken lines;

FIGURE 2 is a view in section taken in the line 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary view to an enlarged scale taken on the line 3-3 of FIGURE 2, and illustrating the precise manner in which the gate of the present invention pivots between its closed position shown in full lines and its open one shown in broken lines; and

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary view to an enlarged scale taken in the line 44 of FIGURE 1.

If concurrent reference is now made to FIGURES 1 and 2, it will be seen that there is shown a gate 14] closing a driveway defined between a fence post 11 on the one side, and a spaced pair of posts 12 and 13 on the other. Fencing 14 extends from post 11 in the conventional manner and may be connected tangentially to the outer face of either of the posts 12 or 13 so long as the fencing 14 does not lie in the plane between the posts 12 and 13 which the gate 10 occupies in its raised or open position.

The gate 10 is, as shown, made up of a rectangular tubular frame 15, cross braced at 16 and supporting ordinary wire fence material within the frame. A pivot pin 18 passes through both of posts 12 and 13 and through a bearing 19 (FIG. 3) in that lower corner of the gate frame '15 which lies between posts 12 and 13.

It can now be see that the gate 10 can be pivoted about pin 18 from the full line to the broken line positions of FIGURE 1, and that when the gate is in the raised or broken line position, the roadway between post 11 and pair of posts 12 and 13 is open so that a vehicle may pass through.

An important part of this invention is the apparatus which responds to the weight of a vehicle approaching gate 10 to open the gate by the pivotal movement thereof just described so that the vehicle may pass therethrough. This apparatus includes two ladder like treadles 2t) and 21 located on opposite sides of the gate in the wheel path of a vehicle approaching the gate. Treadles 29 and 21 are mounted at their ends remote from the gate for pivotal movement about an axis parallel to the gate 10 and substantially in the plane of the road surface. To this end cement blocks 22 and 23, or the like, are poured or otherwise located in the plane of the road surface. The block 22 has anchored therein two eye bolts 24 through the eyes of which a rod 25, forming one end of the ladder like treadle 20, is mounted for pivotal movement. In the block 23 there are similar eye bolts 26 (only one of which shows in FIGURE 2) and pivotally mounted in these is a rod 27 forming one end of the ladder like treadle 21. The fit of the rods in the eye bolts is easy and no lubrication is required nor any protection against dust or moisture.

The ends of treadles 20 and 2 1 remote from the pivot rods 25 and 27, respectively, have short projecting pieces connected by cables 28 and 29, respectively, to a fixture 30 which straddles the lower frame member 15 of gate 1%, and is held in desired position thereon by a bolt and nut clamping arrangement best understood by concurrent reference to FIGURES l and 3. The fixture 3% has eyes 31 and 32 on its opposite sides and cable 28 is anchored in eye 31 while cable 29 is anchored in eye 32. Post 12 has a freely rotatable sheave 33 thereon and, in a similar position, post v13 has a sheave 34 and cables 28 and 29 each passes over one of these sheaves in its run between its treadle and fixture 36).

It can now be seen that when a treadle 20 or 21 is depressed, the effect is to pull fixture 39 upwardly thus causing the gate 10 to pivot anticlockwise, as viewed in FIGURE 1, about pivot pin 13 to the broken line position of FIGURES 1 and 3. It can also be seen that by changing the location of fixture 30 the lever arm through which the treadle works in raising the gate may be increased or decreased as the conditions of a particular installation may require. This feature makes the present invention readily adaptable to various types and shapes of gate.

When fixture 30 is raised by the depression of one of the treadles, the cable to the other treadle is slacked so that its treadle falls to the ground by action of gravity pivoting about the appropriate axis of the rod 25 or 27 as the case may be. Extending from the post 13, there is a bracket 35 which has an eye 36 therein (see FIGURE 3) at its end remote from the post 13. Between the eye 36 and a fixture 37 bolted to the upright portion of gate frame 15, there extends in tension a coil spring 38. When the gate moves from the full line position of FIGURES 1 and 3 to the broken line position of those figures, energy is stored in the spring 38, by extention thereof, resulting from the movement of fixture 37 to an arc to a position more remote from eye 36 than the position occupied when the gate is in the normal or closed position.

t can now be seen that as long as the weight of a vehicle is borne on either one of the treadles 20 or 21, the gate will occupy the raised or open position of PEG- URE 1, with the lower tube of the frame extending generally vertically between posts 12. and 13. When the weight of the vehicle is no longer borne by either of the treadles or 21, the spring 38 contracts and exerts its stored energy to swing the gate about pivot 18 past the dead center position, after which gravity itself will continue the clockwise movement about the pivot 18 as it appears in FIGURE 1, until the gate strikes an abutment 39, adjacent the post 11. To protect the gate against pressure against its side as by confined animals, the vertica frame 15 adjacent the post 11 enters a Y-shaped keeper it).

While the abutment 3-9 can absorb some of the shock of the falling gate, most of the damping is accomplished by an ordinary shock absorber 41 extending between the lower frame member 15 and gate post 12. A link 4-2 connects the shock absorber to the gate frame 15 and the other end of the shock absorber 41 is connected to a pivot pin which projects from post 12. The shock absorber is so designed as to resist extension from the shortened broken line position of FIGURE 3 to the extended full line position thereof, so that the fall of the gate to closed position is dampened.

Thus far in the description of this invention nothing has been said about the magnitude of the angular movement of the gate from its closed to its open positions. In FIGURE 1, the open position is shown as about 80 away from the closed position. If the gate is assumed to have a weight about uniform for each unit of area, one may assume that the center gravity of the gate as shown is not very far from Where cross-braces 16 intersect.

This being the case 80 of movement puts the center of gravity beyond dead center i.e. to the left of the vertical planes of pivot 18 as it is shown in FlGURE 1. In this position, it is necessary that spring 38 have enough thrust to move the center gravity to the right of a vertical plane passing through axis 18 in order for the gate to close. Spring 38 has another function, however, since it goes slightly into tension as the gate nears its closed position it somewhat assists the shock absorber 41 in damping the closing shock of the gate. The geometry just described is fully illustrated in FIGURE 3.

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle operated gate assembly comprising a gate, means mounting said gate for pivotal movement between a normal position closing a roadway and an open position about an axis normal to the plane of the gate and located near one of its corners, treadles on either side of the gate in the path of the vehicle passing through the gate, means pivotally mounting each treadle on said roadway at one end only for movement between a raised and a depressed position about an axis parallel to the plane of said gate, said axis being located at the end of the respective treadle remote from said gate, a fixture attached to said gate near its lower edge and spaced from the axis of pivot of the gate, sheaves, means mounting said sheaves above said fixture, a cable interconnecting the end of each treadle which is adjacent said gate .to said fixture, each cable passing over one of said sheaves, the cable length being such that when the gate is closed the treadles slope upwardly from their axes of pivot toward the gate and depression or the treadles to the plane of the roadway will cause movement of the gate to open position and means responsive to movement of the gate to open position for storing energy to close the gate when the treadles no longer bear vehicle weight.

2. The vehicle operated gate is claimed in claim 1 in which the energy storing means for closing the gate is a coil spring.

3. A vehicle operated gate assembly comprising a gate, means mounting said gate for pivotal movement between a normal position closing a roadway to an open position about an axis normal to the plane of the gate and located near one of its corners, treadles on either side of the gate in the path of a vehicle passing through the gate, meanspivotally mounting each treadle on said roadway at one end only for movement between a raised and a depressed position about an axis parallel to the plane of said gate, said axis being located at the end of the respective treadle remote from said gate, a fixture, means mounting said fixture to said gate near the lower edge of said gate in adjustable spaced relation to said gate axis, sheaves, means mounting said sheaves indpendently of said gate but above said fixture, a cable interconencting the end of each treadle adjacent said gate to said fixture, each cable passing over one of said sheaves, the cable length being such that when the gate is closed the treadles slope upwardly from their axes of pivot toward the gate and depression of the treadles to the plane of the roadway will cause movement of the gate to open position and means responsive to movement of the gate to open position for storing energy to close the gate when the treadles no longer bear vehicle weight.

4. The gate assembly of claim 3 further comprising means to damp the return of said gate to closed position.

5. The vehicle operated gate as set forth in claim 1, further comprising means to prevent lateral displacement of said gate in closed position.

6. The vehicle operated gate as set forth in claim 1, wherein the treadles are ladder-shaped.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,191,389 Beil' July 18, 1916 1,257,333 Fawick Feb. 26, 1918 1,628,703 White May 17, 1927 1,766,564 Thomas June 24, 1930 2,529,386 Guth et a1 Nov. 7, 1950 2,699,005 Thomson Jan. 11, 1955 2,804,705 Lusk Sept. 3, 1957 2,826,840 Cooper et al Mar. 18, 1958 

